The Little Things

Clarence | Musings, Yay | Monday, October 31st, 2005

People expect life-changing revelations to occur in grand, quasi-divine manisfestations — “signs from God,” so to speak. They may be contained in providential coincidences that could only mean something. Or perhaps they are revealed through a tragedy in which one is knocked so far down that the only route to recovery is through extreme personal growth.

However, people tend to overlook the potency of the little things: a tender stroke of the arm, the warmth of a partner’s hand — these modest sensations can contain so much oomph within them. Sometimes, we just have to sit back and allow ourselves to savor these simple joys. It would be a shame to miss out on all this quiet bliss for want of earth-shattering inspiration.

There are times when I can think of nothing better than spending the day with you: just lying down and basking in the pure delight of each other’s presence.

What’s that smell?

Clarence | Xanga | Friday, October 28th, 2005

From today’s Times…

Good Smell Perplexes New Yorkers

By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: October 28, 2005

An unseen, sweet-smelling cloud drifted through parts of Manhattan last night. Arturo Padilla walked through it and declared that it was awesome.

“It’s like maple syrup. With Eggos. Or pancakes,” he said. “It’s pleasant.”

The odor had followed Mr. Padilla and his friend along their walk in Lower Manhattan, from a dormitory on Fulton Street, to Pace University on Spruce Street, and back down again, to where they stood now, near a Dunkin’ Donuts. Maybe it was from there, he said. But it wasn’t.

Mr. Padilla was not alone. Reports of the syrupy cloud poured in from across Manhattan after 9 p.m. Some feared that it was something sinister.

There were so many calls that the city’s Office of Emergency Management coordinated efforts with the Police and Fire Departments, the Coast Guard and the City Department of Environmental Protection to look into it.

By 11 p. m., the search had turned up nothing harmful, according to tests of the air. Reports continued to come in from as far north as 112th Street shortly before midnight. In Lower Manhattan, where the smell had begun to fade, it was back, stronger than before, by 1 a.m.

“We are continuing to sample the air throughout the affected area to make sure there’s nothing hazardous,” said Jarrod Bernstein, an emergency management spokesman. “What the actual cause of the smell is, we really don’t know.”

There were conflicting accounts as to its nature. A police officer who had thrown out her French vanilla coffee earlier compared it to that. Two diplomats from the Netherlands disagreed, politely. Rieneke Buisman said it smelled like roasted peanuts. Her friend Joris Geeven said it reminded him of a Dutch cake called peperkoek, though he could not describe that smell.

The Typical Cornellian

Clarence | Xanga | Monday, October 24th, 2005

I got this list off of an email. It’s funny how all of these bring a reminiscent smile to my face–just like with those “You know you’re a child of the 80’s if…” lists. But I wonder, for those of you non-Cornellians out there, how much of this list seems like complete gibberish to you?

A Typical Cornellian. Are you one?

1. You’ve wasted your Big Red Bucks at the end of the semester because they don’t carry over from fall to spring.
2. Though there are 14,000 undergrads, you know everyone that actually leaves their room.
3. You go to the library just to people watch
4. …and study in a cocktail lounge
5. …or fish bowl.
6. You get excited when you meet people with the net id above or below you.
7. You shop online just to send packages to yourself.
8. You actually understand the significance of a standard deviation.
9. A trip to Wegmans is the highlight of your week.
10. 10 people in a car is a minimum.
11. You and everyone you know has wiped out at least once down a flight of stairs.
12. You’ve run into a TA at CTB on a saturday night… drunk.
13. You’ve cried before a prelim
14. …and after.
15. You know what a prelim is.
16. You know you can bursar a vibrator at Gannett.
17. Your bursar bill is higher than your credit card bill.
18. You feel self-conscious about dressing normally when eating at Risley.
19. You spend 2 hours at RPU for dinner.
20. You have to try 10 different airports to fly out for break (Ithaca, Elmira, Binghamtom, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, NYC, Newark, LaGuardia).
21. You know that kid from montana who wears shorts…everyday.
22. You wear shorts when the temperature hits 45.
23. You have smoothie hut, wings, louie’s, DP dough, pita pit and ithaca taxi programmed into your phone.
24. The people that live in 312 college ave are ballers.
25. Cars without 4-wheel drive are worthless.
26. Though you’ve never met her, you receive daily emails from Denise Cassaro
27. Your school sponsors a day devoted to getting drunk…SLOPE DAY!
28. You don’t understand dragon day, but were amazed to see architects out of hiding.
29. You know who we are talking about when we say “That guy at Oakenshields.”
30. Swedish massage, body mind, sailing and renaissance fencing fulfill gym requirements.
31. You’ve gotten up at 7:30 for coursenroll, but couldn’t log on until 7:37 and ended up with all 8:30 classes.

That reminds me: I still need to take DP Dough’s, Vietnam, Wings, Hong Kong, CTP, Four Seasons, Studio 108, and Taste of Thai out of my phone. Damn, I am/was a fatty. :P

I hope this doesn’t become a habit.

Clarence | Music, Xanga | Monday, October 17th, 2005

So uh, yeah. Here’s another one of those damn lists. I’m only doing this one because I convinced glow to do hers and she had to go and tag me. I can’t be a hypocrite now can I? I sincerely hope this is the last one you will ever see me do.

The Rules:
List five songs that you are currently loving. It doesn’t matter what genre they are from, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re any good. However, they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now.

Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog (Xanga). Then tag five other Xanga friends to see what they’re listening to.

1. Lodger - Bad Place to Earn a Living
2. David Gray - Alibi
3. Kanye West (feat. that guy from Maroon 5) - Heard ‘em Say
4. Youth Group - Forever Young
5. Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
6. The Who - Baba O’Reiley

Yes, I wrote six songs. I said I would play but I refuse to play by the rules. In addition to these songs, I have been listening to the David Gray and Lodger albums a lot this week. I’m a flavor of the week kind of the guy (with my music).

Once again, I refuse to “perpetuate this epidemic silliness” (glow) and leave it up to your own (hopefully) good judgement to decide whether or not you want to do one of your own.

PS - Check out http://www.lodger.tv for some interesting music videos — if you can figure out the navigation ;] Also note, these movies may contain some adult stick figure content, so make sure you put your hands over your eyes if viewing such material is illegal in your state/county/village.

Uh. One of those things…

Clarence | My Life, Xanga | Friday, October 14th, 2005

Rules of the game: Post 5 Weird and Random facts about yourself, then at the end, list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this. Also leave a post on their xanga to let these people know

1. A little more than a year ago, I had no idea what EPs, covers or B-Sides were.
Prior to last summer, I was deep into the world of pop and hiphop. I even had a music folder titled just that. Its funny how 99% of the music I listen to now is rock. I also find it interesting to share that 30 of my 45 gigs of music has been accumulated in this short span of time. Feel free to check my last.fm site to check out what I’m listening to.

2. I am a threadless whore.
I think I have about 10 of their shirts. And I am even linking/promoting them with this fact. That’s how much of a threadless whore I am.

3. I like to dance around in my underwear.
But you will never catch me doing so. Well, I hope not — for both of our sakes.

4. I think a lot more than you think I do.
I overanalyze everything, and I mean everything. I dwell a lot upon random things too. I don’t really know how I find time to do so, since I usually occupy myself with mind-numbing, useless crap. Many people think that I am “nice” and considerate. That’s actually just because I think about everything, including you. If you don’t think I’m considerate, I’m probably thinking about you, but just don’t care enough to act on it. And if that’s not the case, then I’m sorry I’m such an asshole to you. I have a lot on my mind.

5. I’m addicted to the happy pill.
Zoloft anyone? Just kidding. Or am I?

I’m not going to tag anyone, because anybody I tag probably won’t do it anyway. But if the spirit so strikes you to do one, please do. I only did this because I <3 M. That’s the only reason. I hate jumping on these xanga bandwagons because then everybody has the same “unique” entry.

Oh yeah, I finally got off my lazy ass and made a new layout. Enjoy.

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